PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes 1978

I had a poor copy of Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes that I had taped off of cable. So when someone recently gave me a DVD I was quite pleased. I watched it the other day and today I finished up all the extras. The movie came out in 1978 and made good bank. I know I saw it in the theater sometime in 1979 or 1980. It was just after I had moved to the area. 

Director John De Bello wrote the screenplay with Costa Dillon and J Stephen Peace. Peace plays the parachute guy in the film, he was also a California State Senator.

Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes is a goofy comedy, the title coined before the film was made, and it made me laugh. Unsurprisingly, I wasn't always laughing at the jokes. It's a parody of the genre movies I like, monster movies, creature features, alien invasion, that sort of thing. This time the monster is a tomato. People decry the villain. Ludicrous they say, but I believe it. Biting into the hideous flesh of the tomato is the most unholy of hell's.  I've always hated the tomato. The only good tomato is ketchup.

Tomatoes attack and the government tries to hush it up. They send a squad of goofballs to try to keep the problem in check. They don't do so well but eventually they stomp some round red ass.

I listened to the audio commentary with John De Bello, Steve Peace and Costa Dillon and enjoyed it. There are some featurettes that were of mixed quality. Nice to see Jack Riley and John Astin talking about the film. There's a couple of 8mm shorts that De Bello and company made several years before the feature film. They're amateurish, the film makers were in high school, but I managed to get through them. There's a production design photo gallery, a trailer and some radio spots. I know I'll get to this again someday. I plan to pick up the sequels. A couple are on order already. 

Night Boat To Dublin 1946

I picked up a copy of Night Boat To Dublin just because it's got Robert Newton in it and he's not playing a pirate. I haven't seen many of the movies he made when he wasn't playing Long John Silver. He's in the 1939 Hitchcock film Jamaica Inn. Robert's career started in 1924 and ended in 1956 when he passed away at age 50. He's in 41 movies and only 2 were Long John films. He died just after making the TV series The Adventures Of Long John Silver. I used to watch that series when I was a kid and grew to love the rascally Long John.

Night Boat To Dublin came out in 1946 and the screenplay was written by Lawrence Huntington and Robert Hall with Lawrence directing. Lawrence directed over 30 films but I think I've only seen one other. It's hard to find these older British films over here. The DVD of Night Boat To Dublin is from the UK. There's no edition out in the US.

Robert plays Captain David Grant, he's a spy who's on the trail of a traitor. The villain has kidnapped a Swedish atomic scientist. The fellow on the right is Captain Toby Hunter who's being played by Guy Middleton. They've got a lead on the villain called Faber and Captain Grant has a plan to infiltrate Faber's organization. He gets a clerk job in Faber's law office. Faber gets tricked into believing Grant is a AWOL soldier who stole some plans and he takes him on to help in his criminal activity. His first job for Grant is marry a young German woman. That's her below, holding Robert's hand. Don't worry, he'll be A-OK.

It all goes well until Faber's henchman fumbles onto Grant's deception. It's touch and go there for a while. I liked the script, the characters and the general production. I was glad to have picked it up. I'll want to watch it again.

Bill Bailey - Limboland 2018

Limboland is Bill Bailey's 2018 DVD of his recent tour. It was recorded at the Hammersmith Apollo. Bill jokes about and plays some music. He tells some stories and I had a laugh. There were no extras on the DVD.

Reunion 1976

Reunion is a 1976 porn film, it was written and directed by Leonard Kirtman under the name Jay West. It's part of the Vinegar Syndrome Peekarama DVD series. Porn is so legit nowadays that places like Amazon and Hamilton Books sell it. The movie opens with some people heading over to an island. They're all old pals from high school and they've been invited to spend a weekend on the island. Little do they know their host is set on revenge for the pranks they played on him when he was a student. Kind of like Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians but no one gets killed, just sexually assaulted. It all works out in the end and there's a lot of bonking in between. The production on this is much better than on Sherlick Holmes. I might watch it again someday, but again, there are all those other films clambering to get eye balled.

Sherlick Holmes 1975

Sherlick Holmes is a 1975 porn parody of Sherlock Holmes. It's written by Bear Wilson and directed by Tim McCoy (Victor Milt). It's part of a two film set from Vinegar Syndrome's Peekarama DVD series.

Harry Reems plays Sherlick and Zebedy Colt plays Watson. The movie starts with Sherlick and Watson banging some lady. Holmes has invented a time travel machine. Watson accidentally sends them to New York in the 1970s. They meet up with pimp Bobby Astyr and he lends them some of his spare pimp outfits. The time machine disappears and Sherlick and Watson noodle around sticking their plonkers into any available lady they come across. Eventually Sherlick finds the time machine and they get back home and start banging again. It's kind of funny, more for the film making than the jokes, and part of that fun was watching Harry and Zebedy running about the streets of New York in those pimp outfits. I wouldn't have picked it up, other than for the Sherlock connection. I might watch it again someday but who knows. So many other better films to watch again.

Naked Evil 1966

Naked Evil is a British film that came out in 9166. It's based on a play called The Obi by Jon Manchip White, the screenplay is by Stanley Goulder who also directed. I recognized a couple of people in the cast, Basil Dignam and Anthony Ainley. Basil was in The Quatermass Xperiment, Carry On Sergeant, Carlton-Browne Of The F.O., The Pure Hell Of St Trinian's, I'm Alright Jack, Gorgo, Lawrence Of Arabia and many more. Anthony many would recognize as the Master from Doctor Who. He was the fourth actor to play the part and he appeared in 11 stories. I prefer Roger Delgado but sadly he died.

In Naked Evil a club owner hires an obi-man to voodoo some trouble on a rival club. That's the obi-man above, he's also the janitor at a hostel for foreign university students.That's it below. The film was shot in black and white but randomly tinted for distribution. The tints here are from the alternate version of the film.

One of the students is paid to deliver the obi's to the victims.  Deaths occur and the police get involved. They don't believe the voodoo angle at first but some weird shit happens and doubt is cast. It's a bit slow moving but there's usually something going on and it kept me interested. The cast is good, some of them did a great job. The dialog was mostly OK, there were time though, I laughed. The sets and locations work well.  That's the hostel above, nice old building, inside and out. I was glad to see it and I'd watch it again.

The DVD comes with a few extras, photo gallery, trailers, TV promos, liner notes and a whole different version of the movie. Exorcism At Midnight was Samuel M Sherman's attempt to take a black and white film and change it enough that TV Channels, who were only interested in color films, would buy it. He tinted the black and white photography, cut big chunks out of the original film, then shot some color footage to cut into what was left. Lawrence Tierney is in the color bits as a psychiatrist who's using a laser to get more info from a patient. What the man remembers is the original film, now tinted in sepia and red. I watched it right after NE and it's just not as interesting. There's a commentary with Sam Sherman and he usually had something to say. I was glad to have the seen it but I'll stick with the original in the future.

 

Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights 2010

Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights is a Channel 4 sketch comedy show. Frankie introduces the sketches, and does a bit of stand up, before a studio audience. At least a couple of the jokes he did were also in the Sodom Tour DVD. Frankie's not for everyone but I enjoy him. Others do to, he keeps saying stuff that gets him into trouble but they keep putting him back on the TV.

The Wikipedia tells me that the title is a reference to the opioid drug Tramadol and J G Ballard's novel Cocaine Nights. Frankie said on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross that the original title was Deal With This, Retards but they made him change it. That Frankie, always pushing the envelope, then wanking on it.

There were only 6 episodes and they aired in November and December 2010. I'd seen them before, from YouTube, but decided I wanted the DVD. It's so much nicer looking. It's from the UK and the price had fallen enough to make it less than 10 bucks delivered. Weak pound and no VAT adds up to savings for me. DVDs are going out of fashion over there too. Used to be all the big comedians had a DVD out every couple or three years but now they put their tour shows on Netflix.

Each episode starts with Frankie talking to the audience, then they cut away to filmed sketches. There's even some animations. It's all very dark and dire satire with lots of death and bile. Frankie acts in many of the sketches. Not all the sketches work for me but that's common for many sketch shows. I really like Little Britain but some of the sketches weren't as funny as others. When Frankie hit the mark for me the sketches were crackling with anger focused at the sort of people who make the world a worse place. I enjoyed the stand up part of the show more than most of the sketches but I enjoy Frankie railing against the world quite a bit. He knows who the cunts are. Like I said, not for everyone.

Science Fiction Sunday 529

All the Critters movies are a nice mix of science fiction, horror and comedy. They're all PG-13, not too gory for the most part. I'd seen the first movie for sure, probably the second but not the third and fourth. I didn't have any of them and decided to buy them before they disappear or turn into gold. I got a 2 disc 4 film set of the Critters franchise on eBay for $9.95 with Free Shipping. I've been bought several DVDs from eBay sellers recently and so far anything rated Very Good or better has been just fine. One of the discs had a couple of fingerprints but nothing that couldn't be cleaned off. This set is a 2010 release and each disc has a film a side. All of the films come in widescreen and full screen. It made me wonder when the discs were mastered. Turns out it was 2003. You'd get more WS and FS versions of a film on a disc back then. I'm glad they stopped doing that, it's moronic to even want to watch a widescreen movie in full screen.I know back in 2003 there were more smaller TVs around, I only had a 25 inch TV back then. I got one in the early 90s and finally replaced that in 2005 with a widescreen plasma. I still have that 25 inch but haven't watched it for years. Got to get that out to the recycle.

Critters 1986 Story by Domonic Muir, screenplay by Domonic and Stephen Herek with Don Keith Opper on additional scenes. Stephen Herek is the director. It was Stephen's first movie and he followed that in 1989 with Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

Alien Critters steal a ship from a space prison and crash on Earth near the small town of Grover's Bend. A couple of alien bounty hunters are assigned to find the Critters and kill them. The Critters are the work of the Chiodo Brothers who would go on to do the clown make up in Killer Klowns From Outer Space.

On Earth the human cast includes Dee Wallace Stone, M Emmet Walsh, Scott Grimes, Don Keith Opper, Billy Zane, Lin Shaye and Terrence Mann. Don and Terrence are in all four films playing the same characters. Terence is one of a pair of space bounty hunters that have black faces. They have the power to change that blank face into a copy a human face. Terrence copies a rock star and the other alien copies people in the town. It leads to come confusion but less so than the Critter invasion. They've got a battle on their hands with the fast reproducing Critters. Pretty soon they're all over the town. Don't worry, there's a fairly low body count, plenty of explosions, and most everyone survives. Don Opper's character, the goofy Charlie, leaves with the alien bounty hunters. It made me laugh and that's worth a lot. It's better than average for a smaller horror movie. I'm already glad to have picked up the set and I'm only watched the first movie.

Critters 2 1988 Written by David F Twohy and Mick Garris, with Mick directing. David's had some good success writing and directing. I'm especially fond of the Riddick series.

Scott Grimes returns to Grover's Bend after two years. Hardly anyone wants to see him. Currently you can see Scott on The Orville. I'm looking forward to seeing him on episodes of The Republic Of Doyle, soon as I can get back to that box set. Since Scott has come back to town it's only fair that the Critters return. They attack and people are screaming again.

Terrence Mann and Don Opper return with that third space bounty hunter. This time the alien has copied a Playboy Playmate. There's a bit of nudity. There's more explosions that boobs so that's fun. There's a few jokes and the script was fairly good. It moved the story along and they didn't waste much time. The Critters were varied and entertaining. They left a fairly subdued trail of gore. It is a PG-13 movie after all.

Critters 3 1991 Barry Opper and Rupert Harvey are credited with the story, David J Schow wrote the screenplay and Kristine Peterson was the director. David you might know from all his horror and SF films and TV shows plus all the books, documentaries and articles he's written. He turns up on DVD commentaries once in a while. 

Leonardo DiCaprio is on vacation with his creepy stepdad. Leo meets Aimee Brooks who's traveling with her father and her younger brother. Back int he city it turns out that Aimee lives in an apartment building that Leo's dad owns. Dad's int he middle of driving out the tenants so he can rebuild on the site. The Critters arrive in the city stowed away under Aimee's dad's pick up truck. They settle in the cellar and start munching on the caretaker. He's only a snack and it's onto the remaining tenants. The tenants fight back well and most of them make it out of the building. Don Opper has a substantial part but Terrence Mann only appears in a bit near the end. Terrence tells Don he has to put the last two Critters' eggs into a retrieval pod. Don accidentally gets locked in the pod and taken to the fourth movie. The 3rd and 4th films were shot back to back.

Critters 4 1992 The story is credited to Rupert Harvey and Barry Opper, the screenplay to Joseph Lyle and David J Schow, and Rupert Harvey is directing.

The retrieval pod from the 3rd movie has been retrieved. Only prob, it's not the people it was intended for. Brad Dourif, Eric DeRe, Angela Bassett are among the crew of the ship that pulls in the pod. It's been 53 years since Don got into the pod and he wakes up all confused. The Critters escape and multiply in the ship's ducts and dank places. There's plenty of battling the Critters and a few of the staff bite the dust. Terrence Mann shows up near the end. He wants the Critters and he's being a real prick about it. Don is disappointed in his old friend and lets him know rather harshly. I enjoyed the set and plan to watch them all over again someday. Sadly there are no extras.

Friday Night Movies 720

The Endless is a 2018 movie that was directed by Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson. They play the two leads in the movie and Justin wrote the screenplay. Aaron and Justin play two men who left a cult 10 years before. They get an old video tape in the mail and it somehow intrigues them enough to go back for a visit. Everyone at the cult seems fine but they seem to have aged little in the ten years since the men left. Turns out there's a reason for that but it takes a meandering pace to get to the answer. I liked the concept of the movie, monster in the lake and trapped victims, but didn't care much for the execution. I found the first half poked along with little of interest, there's a lot of wandering in the woods, but it did pick up in the second half as we find out what's going on. I didn't find I liked any of the characters, the two main characters are dim and Aaron especially finds it hard to get along well in society, even when confronted by endless death he still wants to stay with the cult. The cult members are trapped in their hell but they don't warn the brothers off when they had the chance. Fuck those guys. Not a movie I'd need to see again. Others might like it more.

Uninvited is a 1988 direct to video release. It's written and directed by Graydon Clark. He made 20 films in 25 years directing. I've seen a couple, The Return and Without Warning, I gave a 2 to the former and a 5 to the latter. This movie's about a killer cat that's escaped from a lab. The cat has been infected with a virus. Alex Rocco is a rich businessman with crooked dealings. He's escaping the SEC and fleeing to the Cayman Islands on his yacht. He's got a stash of cash in the bank. Of course, soon as you're in a hurry, along comes hell cat and all bets are off. Alex is joined by his fellow criminals, George Kennedy and Glu Galager, and what an odd pair they are. Hardly the pals of a rich businessman with clean hands. Alex invited two young gals, in town on Spring Break, who bring along three guys when they show up. Alex wants to send the guys away but they're allowed to stay if they'll act as crew. Things are quiet for most of the night, only poor drunken Glu gets attacked by the cat. No one realizes what happened, poor Glu must have tripped, hit his head, and fallen into the sea. They'll know soon enough that it's the cat. One by one they get picked off. It's pretty typical stuff, somewhat entertaining but still not more than a 4 from me. I wouldn't need to see it again and won't bother picking up a copy.

The Switch 1975

The Switch is a 1975 R rated version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It's the last of the Joe Sarno films in the 4 film set from Film Media and Something Weird, they've packaged the movies with a few extras. Mary Mendum plays the scientist who invents the serum. Mary was in the 1974 movie The Groove Tube, she was in the Sex Olympics sketch. Chris Jordan, Jennifer Wells, Sonny Landham, Eric Edwards and Darby Lloyd Rains were cast members I recognized. It's more fun than any of the other films and some of the jokes work well enough. There's a fair bit of nudity but it's still an R rated film. I'd watch this one again someday but it won't be soon.